Travelogue Part 1

This brief travel journal will cover my trip to Beijing. The number of photos seen here will be 1% of the total number of photos taken. Let’s get it started.
It was a midnight flight so we boarded the airport limo after dinner. What are the chances of having the same taxi driver for 2 consecutive yearly vacations?
 
We had the exact same taxi driver who drove us last year to pick us up when we just simply dialled the hotline for a limo. Nowadays even airport limos have GPS devices in their cars, quite advanced.
Anyway the Christmas decoration was bad at KLIA, with just a few miserable Christmas trees in the middle of check-in counters for little kids to pose for photos.

Checked in 3 hours prior to departure, so we had lots of time to spare. Headed for supper at Noodles.

Killed time by snapping away at the satellite terminal.

Shot from the aero train. Nice effect (to me).

While snapping guess what I saw: airport staff playing games. They were clever enough to hide behind the counter but not smart enough to realise that people from upstairs were watching them.

------

Experienced Malaysian Hospitality for 6 hours, landed at Beijing Capital Airport in the wee hours of the morning. Didn’t get a chance to see the newly built T3 as MAS uses T2.

Ate sandwiches from Starbucks and started to tour around Beijing. First stop: Summer Palace. This place is listed on UNESCO World Heritage List.





The entire lake was frozen. Temperature on that day was 2°C , the highest throughout my stay there and I wasn’t wearing my long john on my first day there.

Visited the hutongs 胡同 on trishaws. Hutongs are traditional courtyard residences, but there are not many left in Beijing today.

Went into one of the preserved residences to have a look at the arrangement of furniture etc. The compound is surrounded by 4 rooms, 1 for the parents, 1 each for boys and girls and another one for guests.



Strolled along Bar Street 酒吧街 before heading for lunch. It was rather quiet cause this street comes alive only at night.
  

Had Brazilian buffet BBQ for lunch. I have no idea what Brazilian BBQ has got to do with Beijing but anyway I think the locals like it a lot.

 
After lunch, we visited the Temple of Confucius 北京孔庙. I don’t know why but whenever I look at his statue, I feel calm.

‘When anger rises, think of the consequences.’ - Confucius

On few occasions, I saw up to 10 men crowding around a Chinese chess game out in the cold. Perhaps thinking/strategising keeps them warm?


Night show after dinner. Very entertaining, very colourful cultural show. Acts include mask changing 变脸, emperor and his girls, wushu, lion & dragon dance and more.

More photos from day 1:

To be continued…